Veterans
by Viceroy Elf
Summary: After a recent visit from the Ice King, Marceline is saddened by her memories of the man he used to be. Seeking closure, she visits an old friend for support. Like with my last FinnFire story, I hope this will usher in some Iceline stories.


Veterans

"Well, this has all been fun, Marceline. Thanks for helping me with the song, but if I stay away from the kingdom too long, the penguins start to get into my secret treasures."

And with that, The Ice King flew off to his palace, leaving the vampire queen to watch him as he left. After all that, he still didn't remember her. His mind was still plagued by the energy of his crown. She had such hope, and it was all dashed away. She couldn't ignore the tears staining her face.

She couldn't stay in her cave any longer. She needed comfort, and sought the one person who could give it to her.

She flew far, impossibly far across the land of Ooo, until she had reached the big hole. Deep into the downward tunnel she had found the underground forest that was home to the person she wanted to speak with. Finding the hollowed out tree in which he rest, she knocked on his door.

The door opened, and in it stood a tall young man with long, red hair that was tinted very dark. He was wearing green and beige argyle pajamas and had a pair of small black spectacles resting on the bridge of his nose, though they did little to obscure his eyes, which were a foggy white. In his right hand was a staff, made of dark green wood and adorned at the end with a large green crystal ball, the wood gripping it curved into question marks.

"Marceline, what the devil are you doing at my door. I only get one night of sleep per month and you're ruining it." he stated agitatedly. His scowling expression immediately softened when he saw tears down Marceline's face.

"Marcy, is there something wrong?" he asked. She simply stood outside his door.

"Oh right, would you like to come in?" With that, Marceline's vampire nature allowed her entrance to the man's home.

She sat on one of his chairs next to the magic aura the laminated the room. "Simon came to my house today." She said.

The man smiled, "Really? Has he shown any signs of recovery?" He asked excitedly.

"Not even close. He just wanted me to help him write a song for stupid princesses." She stated angrily, throwing one the fragile nik-naks from the man's nightstand against a wall.

Ignoring the fact that she had just broken something of his, the man approached the distressed girl. "I'm sorry Marcy. I know he means a lot to you."

"It's not fair! You have wizard eyes and your brains not all weird. Why did he have to lose his mind?!" she exclaimed in anger to no one in particular.

"You have to understand, Marceline. The Crown is full of corrupt magic, and Simon was a simple human when he'd found it. It wasn't just the wizard eyes that did this to him." The man said. "I promise, I'll never stop looking for a way to cure him."

"I know. It's just… what if there's nothing left to cure?" she asked as more tears fell.

He took her hand in hers. "It doesn't matter, because I'm much to naïve and hopeful to consider such a thing, you know that." He said. He let go of her hand and retreated to another area in his house. When he returned, he had a small stone in his hands, and gave it to her.

"Here. As you know, Simon was an antiquarian, and often restored antiques." He explained, and pointed to the stone.

"Press your thumb against this, and you'll open a portal to small dimension containing his unfinished antiques that I've collected." He said. "I find that restoring his antiques in my free time gives hope that he too can be restored. I thought perhaps you would think the same thing."

Marceline smiled and put the stone in her pocket. "Thanks, Rigid." She said.

"Any time. We veterans must stick together." Marceline nodded and left his home.

After Marceline left, Rigid went back to see what she had thrown.

As soon as he realized what it was, he smiled as he himself began to tear up.

She had broken an old picture frame, and he knelt down to pick up the picture that was once inside it.

The picture depicted a young man with pointed ears, a white collared shirt with a yellow vest and grey slacks, his eyes a foggy white behind black spectacles and his deep, dark red hair tied back in a pony tail, and next to him stood a man with pale blue skin, long hair and a beard of pure white, dark grey coat over a white shirt and red vest with black pants, blue spectacles obscuring his similarly white eyes, and a gold crown with red gems hanging from his belt. In the blue man's arms he held up a little girl with pale skin, black hair, and two small fangs poking out of her mouth.

**I'm sorry to those of you that are waiting for my epic story that's still in the works, but I simply had to write this after seeing _I Remember You. _The man Marceline visits is an OC of mine named Rigid; you'll learn more about him in the epic. I simply felt so much feels, and after having already planned for my OC to be a part of both Marceline and the Ice King's pasts, I figured I would write this to tie them all together nicely. **

**Review good or bad, at least be honest.  
**


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